Of
Paradise and PowerAmerica and Europe in the New World OrderBy
Robert KaganAlfred A. KnopfHC, 103 pgs. US$18/C$27ISBN: 1-4000-4093-0

Different
perspectives on power

By Steven Martinovichweb
posted March 24, 2003

"It
is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of
the world, or even that they occupy the same world." With that statement
Robert Kagan opens Of Paradise and Power, his controversial June/July 2002
Policy Review essay turned book. As recent events have shown, European
and American political leaders have come to the sudden realization that an ideological
gap may have irreversibly changed the nature of their decades old alliance.

It
is Kagan's contention that Europe's domination of global politics took a severe
blow after the Second World War. Already battered by war, European power was further
eroded by a guarantee of security provided by the might of the United States.
While that provided a sense of cohesion, Kagan argues, it also prompted Europeans
to begin reevaluating how power should be used. Adopting a post-modernist Kantian
approach, European politicians began to argue with the zeal of a missionary that
the belief that force could solve problems was immoral.

Instead of invading
a nation like Iraq, their current line of thinking goes, carrots should be dangled
in front of Saddam Hussein. The seductive lure of commercial trade, diplomatic
entreaties and promised legitimacy should be used to bring Hussein in line. The
use of American force in Iraq presents a greater danger to the world, even with
a successful resolution, then anything that Hussein could do.

The problem
with that line of thought, as world events have indicated, is that the rest of
the world doesn't seem share that belief and the greatest threat to Europe's sense
of mission is the path the United States follows. By continuing to rely on its
overwhelming military power and its willingness to use it unilaterally if necessary
the United States is pursuing a path that will bring it in continual conflict
with Europe.

"The current situation abounds in ironies. Europe's rejection
of power politics and its devaluing of military force as a tool of international
relations have depended on the presence of American military forces on European
soil. Europe's new Kantian order could flourish only under the umbrella of American
power exercised according to the rules of the old Hobbesian order. American power
made it possible for Europeans to believe that power was no longer important.
And now, in the final irony, the fact that U.S. military power has solved the
European power ... allows Europeans ... to believe that American military power,
and the 'strategic culture' that has created and sustained it, is outmoded and
dangerous," writes Kagan.

Kagan's thesis is a compelling one but a
reader, especially a European, could be forgiven if they asked how accurate it
really was. While it's true that collective European military power continues
to decline in comparison to the United States and its also true that Europe's
experiences have led it to its focus on diplomacy over displays of raw power,
is Kagan right to argue that there is a rapidly widening ideological gap between
America and the Europe?

Judging by recent history, which not only includes
Iraq but events in the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo, it would appear that Kagan
is more right than he is wrong. Europe's inability to project its power, as evidenced
in Kosovo, has severely limited its influence not only with the United States
but also throughout the world. When diplomacy fails, or never had a chance of
succeeding, Europe's approach to global politics fails. America should be happy
that Europe is a paradise of peace, writes Kagan, but it should not expect to
rely on it in the future. Europe will in the future continue to be frustrated
in its attempts to constrain American power.

Given the emotional response
that Europeans and Americans have displayed in reaction to each other's efforts
over Iraq, Of Paradise and Power may be one of the most important intellectual
efforts of the year. The strain in relations between America and Europe promises
to only grow greater in coming years as further threats to global security surface.
Given the vast disparity in power between the two, that means the U.S. will likely
initiate more unilateral actions and that will prompt further European protest.
Of Paradise and Power does a remarkable job explaining the roots of this
strain and why it will not diminish.

Steven Martinovich is a freelance writer in Sudbury, Ontario.

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